Airwaves Racing headed to Brands Hatch full of optimism for a strong showing at their home circuit but unexpected issues with the NGTC Focuses meant that the results weren’t there.
Having fought to find the pace which Mat Jackson showed at the end of the 2012 campaign in the Focus, a difficult qualifying session left Jackson 12th fastest and Aron Smith 14th fastest.
The opening round of the 2013 campaign set the tone for the rest of the day, as Jackson fought his way up the order before collecting debris which meant he dropped down the order to finish 20th.
Jackson produced one of his renowned drives up the field in the second race to finish eighth, which became seventh after Gordon Shedden, was excluded from the results – this gave the #7 Airwaves Racing driver pole for the third race.
Having saved the soft tyre option for the final race, Jackson led away before a Safety Car period due to a heavy accident involving two cars and once the race went live, he dropped down the order due to an intermittent engine issue and he crossed the line 10th overall.
“We’ve made a lot of different changes to the set up today and we were chasing the circuit with it being so cold,” explains Jackson.
“Both cars are down a different road so we’re learning twice as much data so we’ve got a lot to work with between now and the next round at Donington.
“Overall though, we’ve got a bit more of an understanding of where we are and where we need to be and feel positive that we’ve got the direction now that we need to go in to push the cars forward. We also need to iron out the reliability issues we suffered from this weekend, which we’ll do over the next few weeks,” concludes the Henley-in-Arden racer.
Team-mate Smith had reverse fortune to Jackson as he finished the opening round 9th, and collected his and the teams first points of the season.
Smith was then forced out of the second race early due to a wiring issue and he lined up towards the back of the field for the final race of the day, and he was able to make up 11 places to bring the #8 Focus home 11th, just behind team-mate Jackson.
“Well, that was not the weekend we had planned for!” added Irishman Smith, who tasted victory on his last appearance at Brands Hatch.
“There’s definitely more for us to learn about the car to get the most out of it but I think we kept making steps forward.
“Lap time wise we started off with quite a big deficit and closed it right down for the last race despite my car missing race 2. We have a test day planned between now and Donington in two weeks’ time, which should really get us back onto the pace where we need to be, and I think that the developments that we’ll find will hopefully put us back at the sharp end for the next round,” he concluded.